


Career Day

by superhusbands4ever (Potterwatch97)



Series: Iron Dad & Spider-Son [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Career Day, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, High School, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 02:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14486631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Potterwatch97/pseuds/superhusbands4ever
Summary: “Hey, sorry I’m late,” Peter’s enhanced senses picked up the familiar voice from outside the door. “I had a meeting this morning and then I got lost looking for the class… anyway, I’m here for Peter? Peter Parker?”He frowned at hearing his name, still unsure what exactly was going on. He watched as his teacher continued to stand and stare out the door for a minute before seemingly remembering herself and taking a step back.“Of course! If you could just go sit next to him until your turn, he’s in the back on the right side.”The man stepped through the door and Peter gaped with the rest of the class as Tony Stark, in his signature suit and goatee, sporting a pair of red sunglasses and carrying a suitcase walked through the door.~Prompt: Okay but what abt Tony going in to Peter’s school for career day? Like where the parents talk abt their jobs?





	Career Day

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't the next work I wanted to post, but that one isn't finished yet so you guys get this one. I asked for prompts on my Tumblr because I saw Infinity War again today and I am sad so... fluff. Don't worry, this nor anything I'm going to be posting any time soon will have Infinity War spoilers or even anything to with IW at all. In fact, we're just gonna act like IW hasn't come out yet lmao
> 
> Be on the look out for a couple more fics tomorrow as well!
> 
> Prompt is from toriisahunter on tumblr: Okay but what abt Tony going in to Peter’s school for career day? Like where the parents talk abt their jobs?

“Hey, May?”

May looked up from spreading butter on her toast.

“Yeah Pete?”

“I was just wondering,” Peter started, fiddling with the fork in his hand, “next week is career day at school… they’re having a bunch of kids parents come in to talk about what they do, you know, try and give the students some idea where they might want to work after high school. Do you… do you think you could do it? They asked our class to bring our parents, so….”

May sighed as she sat down her knife. Peter dropped his eyes back to his eggs, disappointment burning in his stomach as he already knew what May was going to say.

“Peter, I… I wish I could,” May said softly, “I really do, but I can’t afford to take off work right now. Money has been a little tight lately, you know? I can’t afford to lose more shifts than absolutely necessary, you know?”

“Yeah,” Peter said, gesturing with his fork and trying to appear nonchalant, “yeah, I get it. Work is more important.”

“Peter, that’s not what I--”

“No, no,” Peter rushed to reassure her, guilt burning through him at the pained look in her eyes, “I didn’t-- I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean, you know, money is important for… for living, so going to work is important. Besides, it's not like  _ everyone’s  _ parents are going to be able to show up for the same reason, right? It’s alright, May.”

“I’m sorry, Pete,” May said quietly, reaching over to place a comforting hand on Peter’s arm. “I know its hard for you when these kind of things happen. You know if I could, I would.”

“Nah, it’s fine, it’s alright,” Peter said, staring at her hand on his arm. He tried to ignore the burning in his eyes, not really succeeding. It always sucked when he wasn’t able to participate in the parent-child functions the school put on, especially since Ben died, but he knew it wasn’t anyone’s fault. He knew May would be there for him if she could, but he also understood why she couldn’t.

He cleared his throat and glanced at the clock on the wall. Shoving the last of his eggs in his mouth, he stood and grabbed his backpack from the back of his chair.

“I should head out, I’m gonna be late,” he said, proud at how steady his voice sounded.

“Okay,” May smiled, pushing her glasses up her nose as she watched him go, “have a good day! I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he shouted over his shoulder as he rushed out the door.

May rubbed her hand over her eyes as she sat back in her chair. She knew it was hard for Peter when he had to be alone on days when parents were asked to visit classes, ever since he was a little kid. Her and Ben always tried to work it out so at least one of them was available to go with him, but they couldn’t always make it. She hated the thought of Peter sitting alone in class while all the other kids got to show off their parents and what they do, but they really just couldn’t afford to lose any money at the moment.

Looking at the clock and grimacing at the time, she got up to gather her stuff for work. She grabbed her purse off the counter, not realizing it was upside down, and cursing when everything fell out of it. She crouched down to gather all her stuff when he saw her phone light up with a text.

**Tony Stark  
** _ Hey May, just making sure we’re still on for Peter coming to the tower after school today. Let me know if I need to pick him up. _

She stared at the name on her screen, an idea popping into her head. It was probably a long-shot, Tony was a busy man, but it was worth a try at least.

Before she could change her mind, she unlocked her phone and pressed the call button. She held it up to her ear and waited as it rang.

“Hey, Tony? Yeah, it’s me. Wha-- no, no, Peter’s fine. Yeah, he can go to the tower, that’s fine. Listen, I uhh… I kinda need to ask you a favor, if you’re willing. For Peter.”

* * *

Peter sighed and tried to bury his face further into his arms on his desk as he listened to Brooke’s dad go on and on about being a firefighter in New York. Out of all the kids in his homeroom, he was one of only two kids whose parents/guardian weren’t able to come in. And the only reason the other girl’s parents couldn’t come in was because her dad was in the Army and currently deployed overseas, and her mom was a stay at home mom with twin three-year-old boys. So, really, the only parent less one in the class was him.

Which, really, he was used to by now. This wasn’t the first time May, or even Ben when he was alive, hadn’t been able to come in for whatever event the school was doing. Still, it wasn’t easy being reminded of the fact that his home life was different from everyone else’s. Especially when all the parent/guardians were told to sit at the desks with their kids, and he was sitting all alone in the back of the room.

He was jolted out of his melancholy thoughts when everyone started clapping around him. He looked up and noticed that Brooke’s dad had finished his presentation, so he clapped politely along as they waited for the next person to set up.

“Alright,” Peter’s teacher sad from the front of the room, “so next we’re going to have Flash’s parents come up and talk about being lawyers--”

She was interrupted by a knock at the door. Everyone stopped to look at the door as Ms. Abernathy went to open it. She froze at the door, a shocked look on her face, but Peter couldn’t see who was standing outside from his seat.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Peter’s enhanced senses picked up the familiar voice from outside the door. “I had a meeting this morning and then I got lost looking for the class… anyway, I’m here for Peter? Peter Parker?”

He frowned at hearing his name, still unsure what exactly was going on. He watched as his teacher continued to stand and stare out the door for a minute before seemingly remembering herself and taking a step back.

“Of course! If you could just go sit next to him until your turn, he’s in the back on the right side.”

The man stepped through the door and Peter gaped with the rest of the class as Tony Stark, in his signature suit and goatee, sporting a pair of red sunglasses and carrying a suitcase walked through the door.

Tony nodded at the shocked faces of Flash and Flash’s parents at the front as he walked to the back of the class, put his suitcase on the desk, and calmly sat next to Peter, pulling out his phone to silence it before looking up to wait for Flash’s parents to begin speaking.

Everyone sat in awkward, stunned silence for another minute before Ms. Abernathy cleared her throat.

“Mr. and Mrs. Thomson, you can go ahead and start whenever you’re ready.”

Flash’s parents sort of jolted out of their stupor before haltingly launching into their presentation, Flash standing to the side controlling the slides on the powerpoint.

Peter turned to Tony.

“Mr. Stark, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here for career day, Pete, what does it look like I’m doing,” Tony said, reaching up to take his sunglasses off and tuck them into his jacket pocket, “and what did I tell you about that ‘Mr. Stark’ crap?”

“How did you even find out about this?” Peter asked, ignoring the Tony’s last comment.

“Your aunt mentioned you were bummed she couldn’t come, so I said I’d go instead.”

Peter felt a sudden rush of affection for both his aunt and his mentor.

“Mr-- Tony, you really didn’t have to--”

“Well I did, and now I’m here, so don’t worry about it,” Tony said, crossing his legs and leaning back to rest his arm on the back of Peter’s chair. “Now, pay attention. This is important for future career decision making.”

Peter rolled his eyes at Tony’s words and matching smirk, but sat back and paid attention to the Thomson’s presentation anyway. Or, at least, he tried to. It was a little hard to pay attention when half the class  _ and  _ their parents kept glancing back to stare at both him  _ and  _ Tony, but Tony seemed to able to ignore them, so Peter just tried to do the same. He even tried to ignore the looks Flash and his parents would throw to their corner of the room every now and again.

Peter was once again jolted from his thoughts when everyone started to clap politely, Flash’s parents presentation over. As they were cleaning up, Ms. Abernathy stepped forward again.

“Alright, who would like to go ne--”

“We will!” Tony said, throwing his hand up like a -- well -- high school kid. Peter felt his face burn as his whole class seemed to turn as one to stare back at them.

“Alright!” Ms. Abernathy said, a little overly-cheerfully, “up next is Peter and Mr. Stark!”

“Call me Tony, please,” Tony said with a smile as he walked to the front of the class, suitcase in hand, Peter following meekly behind.

When Tony got to the front, he set down his suitcase and flipped it open, pulling out what Peter recognized as the latest versions of the Stark Phone and Stark Tablet, and a watch that looked suspiciously like his gauntlet watch. Peter stood to the side, and slightly behind Tony, waiting for him to begin.

“Alright!” Tony clapped before unbuttoning his suit jacket and putting his hands in his pockets. “For those of you who don’t know, my name is Tony Stark and I am the owner of Stark Industries I run the R&D department, come up with new ideas for the Stark brand, and I am also the figurehead and unofficial-official tech guy for the Avengers Initiative. Oh, and sometimes I’m the superhero known as Iron Man.”

Peter’s class let out a few laughs at the joke and all gave a quick applause. Tony smiled and gave them a little bow.

“Thank you, thank you…. Now, at Stark Industries we employ over 200,000 people in the New York/tri-state area alone, and hundreds of thousands more at various locations throughout the US and all over the world. Working for Stark Industries could mean working in places like Dubai, Argentina, Japan, or even Canada, if you want to get  _ really  _ exotic.” 

A few more kids let out a laugh and the tension of the room started to go down. Peter stared at Tony in awe of how easy it was for him to take complete control of the room like he did, and without ever once looking uneasy about it.

“Of course, as I’m sure you were all wondering, it  _ is  _ possible to come and work for the Avengers Initiative - not necessarily as a  _ superhero _ , mind you - but because it is a government associated agency, there are governmental jobs for working within the Initiative. Now, working with Stark Industries may actually be a safer, quicker, and  _ easier  _ bet than trying to work in the Avengers Initiative. This is purely because with the Initiative you would have to start out at a regular, boring old government level - FBI, DOD, CIA - job, and you’d have to work your way through the ranks and be  _ placed  _ into working with the Initiative. Working for the Avengers is not just a job you can  _ apply  _ for, it’s one you have to work hard and be  _ specifically picked _ for based on your experience, skill-set, knowledge, and training. At Stark Industries, however, you can always…”

Peter tuned out Tony’s speech as he went on to talk about the specifics of working for Stark Industries, the different kind of departments within, what qualifications were needed to be considered for what job in whatever department, average salary, and a bunch of other stuff that Peter either already knew or didn’t really need to worry about.

Peter was looking around the room and trying hard not to enjoy the shocked jealousy that was making its way across Flash’s face when the sound of his own name brought him back to the present. 

“...Mr. Parker there, though, is my own  _ personal  _ intern/assistant, so his job is very different from what you guys would be doing if you were to get an internship at SI. Regular interns would be placed within a specific department studying and working under a specific group of people on one or two projects over the course of the school year. Peter works with me, specifically - he helps me work on new blueprints for different tech for our StarkTech line, he works with me to come up with new ideas and prototypes, and occasionally gets to help me take a peek at the Iron Man armor and try to figure out ways to improve or add to it.”

Peter tried not to flush under the weight of everyone’s gazes as the whole room, including the parents and Ms. Abernathy seemed to turn as one to stare at him in awe.

“Of course, he still does the regular, BS intern stuff, like get me coffee and doughnuts when I need it,” Tony added with a smirk in Peter’s direction.

The class laughed again as Tony reached back to put a hand on Peter’s shoulder blade and guide him to stand next to Tony beside the suitcase and the gadgets pulled from inside.

“So just really quick, I’ll show you a couple projects that both SI and the Initiative are working on right now. This, of course, is only one small example of the types of things we create at SI and of what I create for the Initiative. Peter here is going to show you some of the features on the newest version of the Stark Phone, which will be available for purchase in a couple months. Peter, could you grab the phone and pull up the accessibility features… yeah, the updated text reader - this particular function was Peter’s idea actually….”

Peter held up the phone and the tablet and ran through the newest and improved features as Tony explained what they were and how they were different from previous versions of the tech. Before Peter knew it, Tony was finished with the StarkTech and was reaching down to pick up the watch from the table.

“Now, the part I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for,” Tony smiled as he held up the watch, “my latest work for the Avenger Initiative. Don’t worry, anything weaponizable about it is deactivated, so while it looks cool, this thing is basically useless in a fight right now unless you punch really hard.”

He turned to Peter and held out the watch. “Peter, if you will.”

Peter looked up at Tony with wide eyes, glancing down at the watch an lifting his eyebrows to ask Tony if he was sure that’s what he wanted.

Tony rolled his eyes and reached down to grab Peter’s wrist, lifting it to fit the watch on as he kept talking to the class.

“Now, this  _ particular  _ version of the watch is actually my own  _ personalized  _ version, so no one else in the Initiative has a watch that does what this one does except for the Avenger Colonel James Rhodes, otherwise known as War Machine. You’ll see why here in just a second.”

Once the watch was on Peter’s wrist, Tony took a step back and gestured towards Peter.

“Pete, if you would be so kind as to demonstrate.”

Peter stared at Tony for a moment before he lifted his other hand to the face of the watch, tapped in the correct sequence, and pulled the nanotech down over his hand as it took the form of a replica Iron Man glove around his hand. The class gasped as Peter held the hand up and moved his fingers around - the whirring of the mechanized hand could be heard throughout the room.

“The watch is designed to offer protection to whoever is wearing it so that they are never unarmed if they are ever caught unawares. This particular watch has a miniature, less powerful form of the Iron Man glove stored inside of it using nanotech that forms to the shape of the hand of whoever is wearing it. It usually is weaponized similarly to my Iron Man glove but don’t worry - all weapon capabilities are turned off, so no one is going to accidentally get shot.”

The class gave a nervous chuckle.

“This watch has the ability to shoot less powerful versions of the power blasts that usually come from the repulsors on my Iron Man suit, which is why it is a little different from the standard issue watch we use at the compound. Usually standard issue has a built-in laser, taser capabilities, is waterproof, fireproof, shock absorbent - practically indestructible, it’s connected with the AI installed upstate, and is used as a communicator between agents who work in the Avengers Compound. It also has a holographic interface that projects from the screen - Peter?”

Tony gestured at Peter, and Peter pressed a button to retract the glove and pressed another to start up the projection, showing the date, time, and what the weather was like outside. He pressed another button so the screen changed to show he had a new text message from Bruce Banner, a voicemail from Steve, and three new emails from Rhodey and Pepper. The glass oohed and ahhed as Peter showed off the watch using the holographic interface projected above it.

“And that’s about it!” Tony said as Peter turned off the watch, took it off, and put it back in Tony’s briefcase with the phone and the tablet. “Any questions?”

The room sat in stunned silence for a moment before everyone leapt to their feet in applause. Peter tried not to blush as he smiled out at the audience and tried to look like he wasn’t completely shocked by how the whole day had gone. Tony simply smiled and nodded, shutting his briefcase and locking it before going to stand next to Peter.

Alright, well if no one has any questions for these two how about we go ahead and thank Mr. Stark for taking the time to come down here and talk to us all,” Ms. Abernathy said once the claps had died down. “Let’s give the other parents another round of applause and then we can go ahead and break for lunch!”

Everyone gave another, less enthusiastic round of applause for the rest of the parents before standing up to leave for lunch. Peter turned to Tony, a huge smile on his face as he stepped forward to hug the man before he could think anything of it. His smile grew impossibly bigger when he felt Tony raise his arms to wrap around him in return.

“Thank you  _ so  _ much, Tony, for coming down here. I know you must’ve been really busy and I don’t want to keep you away from your work, but-”

“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Tony said, raising a hand to ruffle Peter’s hair and he pulled out of the hug. “I told you, if you ever need anything, I’m here for you. Even if it’s just that your aunt is unavailable and you need someone to come visit your school for a couple hours.”

“Still, thank you,” Peter smiled, feeling that familiar, comforting feeling in his chest he was beginning to associate more and more with Tony, “you didn’t have to do all that.”

“I know I didn’t,” Tony said softly, “but I wanted to. For you. So. Don’t complain, you’re welcome.”

Peter laughed and Tony winked at him before glancing down at his watch, same as the one inside his briefcase.

“I should head back to SI,” he said, frowning as he read the email from Pepper, “I got another board meeting in an hour.”

“Oh,” Peter said, trying not to let his disappointment show. The man  _ did  _ just take half his morning off just to come help Peter, so he really couldn’t complain. He’s taken up enough of his time. Still-- “Are you sure you don’t want to stay for lunch?”

“Ew, and eat high school  _ cafeteria  _ food!?” Tony asked incredulously before closing the email and smiling up at Peter. “Sure, why not. Lead the way.”

Peter nodded and turned to walk Tony to the cafeteria. He felt that familiar sense of comfort and safe wash over him again when Tony put his arm around Peter’s shoulders and ruffled his hair. Peter tried to ignore the stares he could feel himself getting from the rest of the school and their parents also on the way to lunch. Though, he took pride in the jealous glare Flash threw his way when he walked by him and his parents.

The day hadn’t turned out quite so bad after all.


End file.
